A 28-year-old female Filipino crew member of cruise ship M/V Harmony of the Seas committed suicide inside her cabin while waiting for the much-delayed repatriation to the Philippines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a social media post yesterday morning, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. identified the Filipino national as Mariah Jocson.
“It is my sad duty to report that a 28-year old female mariner committed suicide in her cabin in the ship where she’s had to stay because repatriation flights back to the Philippines have been suspended again. I know our quarantine facilities are jam-packed; just don’t know why,” Locsin said in a tweet.
Jocson is the second Filipino abroad to commit suicide amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, a Filipina domestic worker has committed suicide in Lebanon, right inside a shelter run by the Philippine Embassy. The OFW reportedly jumped from the second floor of the shelter and died of injuries.
“We are tartly reminded that Filipino resilience is no excuse to stretch them to breaking point. Di sila goma, tao sila,” Locsin said.
According to the website Vessel Finder, the Bahamas-flagged Harmony of the Seas is currently sailing at slow-paced on the Caribbean Sea and listed its destination as “drifting.”
Vessel Finder reported the cruise ship’s last two stops at Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 23, 2020, and at Bridgetown, Barbados on May 27, 2020.
The DFA has yet to respond to media queries regarding details of Jocson’s death. (Roy Mabasa)